The major part towards closing the day’s event was MMA’s Smarties Awards Ceremony showcasing some of the best winning campaigns in mobile for 2019. A celebration of the markets most innovative work, as well as tackling the ROI of creative in mobile, the measurability of creative and the judge’s favourites, where best practices have been used to full effect.
The few major awards of the evening were Recommended App won by EXPO 2020, Technology Enabler of the Year won by INMOBI, Ad Network of the Year won by ADCOLONY MENA. Agency to Watch award was won by FUTURE TECH MEDIA and Agency of the Year was won by UM MENAT while RAKBANK won the Advertiser of the Year
MMA’s team of industry experts took a closer look at ‘skilling for the new norm’ and its perspective in digital pathways and skills of the future. The panelists debated the usage of data and automation tools such as fraud prevention, neuroscience, omni channel tools as well as a broad undertaking in the UAE economy to understand the specific digital skills that will take UAE forward as industries progress and digitize.
Melis Ertem, MENA Country Director, MMA said, “MMA’s main proposition is to lead the future of marketing and thus we created a great line up of speakers on the most important components of business paradigm: DATA. Here’s no doubt that technology has fundamentally changed marketing; today’s marketers need to think like data scientists, understand the fragmented customer buying cycle and deliver better returns to the business than ever before. This while managing a plethora of new digital channels and the challenge of bridging the digital skills gap. Adaption to the ‘Third Connected Age’ – the shift from search and e-commerce and mobile and social to AI, IOT, Voice Interfaces and 5G – has become undoubtedly key.”
Ertem also gave insights on the new findings of the State of the Industry Report of MMA & WARC. Mobile budgets have increased since last year, with 51% now spending more than a quarter of their budget on mobile. For the majority of marketers, mobile budgets are expected to increase over the next year. Over the longer term, the proportion spending more than 25% of their budget on mobile will almost double by 2020.
Some of the other topics and best cases revealed in the region were on – ‘Mobile Gaming In The Region’ by AdColony, ‘Unleash Data For Marketing Led Growth’ by OSN and MMA revealed ‘How To Get Your Organization Fit For MARS’ where in the marketing world, Mobile, Analytics, Real-Time and Social media (MARS) have transformed everything. Twitter touched upon – “How To Engage Users On Social Media while Michelin shared insights on ‘Experience As The New Currency On Brand Love.’ The event was sponsored by Adcolony, Adjust, Affle, DGC Dubai, Du, FutureBright Group, Marketing Mania, mFilterIt, NABD.
Melis further stated, “The mobile phone has forever changed the interaction between consumers and brands delivering a closer, personal, powerful and pervasive marketing platform. Brands have the opportunity to leverage this once-in-an-era transformation by leading the imperative for marketing change and adopting proven, peer-driven and scientific best practices, without compromise.”
MMA has been doing events in the region but this year especially the new committees will roll out providing the industry with local numbers and free education in terms of measurement and research.
“At Impact Dubai 2020, we strive to enhance your marketing and mobile efforts to create genuine relationships with your consumers. With a marketer-led agenda, Impact brings together marketers and experts ready to share tangible takeaways and tactical lessons on how to drive business success. Lock arms with us as we #ShapeTheFuture™ of marketing.” Concluded Melis.
The complete SMARTIES MENA AWARDS 2019 WINNER LIST:
MARKETING OBJECTIVE –
Brand Awareness
Bronze Award
Sunwhite and Future Tech Media & Havas Media Middle East for “Sunwhite Calrose – Rice is Life”
Raid and Future Tech Media & PHD UAE for “It’s Good to be Tough”
Gold Award
Almarai and AdColony & Spark Foundry for “Almarai 7 Days Bake Rolls”
Lead Generation / Direct Response / Conversions
Silver Award
Etisalat and InMobi & Initiative for “Etisalat WaselGo”
Gold Award
RAKBANK and UM MENAT & Promoseven360for “RAKfoodie Paints the Town Yellow”
Product / Services Launch
Bronze Award
Chupa Chups and UM MENAT for “Chupa Chups – stretch the fun on social”
Silver Award
Etisalat and InMobi & Initiative for “Etisalat WaselGo”
Gold Award
RAKBANK and UM MENAT & Promoseven360 for “RAKfoodie Paints the Town Yellow”
Promotion
Bronze Award
Pizza Hut and Mindshare & M&C Saatchi for “Measurable Impact of TV on eCommerce Sales”
Gold Award
RAKBANK and InMobi & UM MENAT for “Rak Foodie App Launch”
Relationship Building / CRM
Silver Award
Careem for “Careem – Honeymoon”
Cross Media
Silver Award
Nissan Middle East and OMD & Silverpush for “Nissan Middle East – Cricket World Cup Live Sports SYNC.”
Gold Award
Signal and Magna Global & SilverPush for “Signal – UNICEF”
Cross Mobile Integration
Gold Award
Pepsi and Future Tech Media & OMD UAE for “Pepsi UCL Mobile Game”
Mobile Website
Bronze Award
Pizza Hut and Mindshare & M&C Saatchi for “Measurable Impact of TV on eCommerce Sales”
Mobile Gaming & Gamification
Silver Award
Walt Disney and OMD UAE & POKKT for “Ant Man & The Wasp – Interactive Video”
Silver Award
Almarai and AdColony & Spark Foundry for “Almarai 7Days Bake Rolls”
Silver Award
Pepsi and Future Tech Media & OMD UAE for “Pepsi UCL Mobile Game”
Mobile Social
Silver Award
Sunwhite and Future Tech Media & Havas Media Middle Eastfor “Sunwhite Calrose – Rice is Life”
Silver Award
Raid and Future Tech Media & PHD UAE for “It’s Good to be Tough”
Gold Award
Chupa Chups and UM MENAT for “Chupa Chups – stretch the fun on social”
Messaging
Gold Award
Huawei Iraq and Out There Media for “Huawei Y9 Prime 2019”
Mobile Video
Bronze Award
Walt Disney and OMD UAE & POKKT for “Ant Man & The Wasp – Interactive Video”
Silver Award
Etisalat and AdColony & Initiative for “Etisalat eLife Unlimited Mr. Bean”
Silver Award
Almarai and AdColony & Spark Foundry for “Almarai 7Days Bake Rolls”
Location Based Services or Targeting
Bronze Award
McDonalds and Blis & Studio M for “McDonalds Food Trust, Jeddah KSA”
Silver Award
Etisalat and InMobi & Initiative for “Etisalat WaselGo”
Silver Award
RAKBANK and MEmobfor “Pay Now Moments”
Gold Award
RAKBANKand InMobi & UM MENAT for “Rak Foodie App Launch”
TECHNOLOGY –
Innovation
Bronze Award
Telfast and Mindshare & Silverpush for “Telfast Weather Sync *Achoo* Campaign”
Bronze Award
Pizza Hut and Mindshare & M&C Saatchi for “Measurable Impact of TV on eCommerce Sales”
Silver Award
Closeup and Anghami & Magna for “Dynamic Ads (Closeup x Anghami)”
Mobile Native
Silver Award
Pizza Hut and Mindshare & M&C Saatchi for “Measurable Impact of TV on eCommerce Sales”
Gold Award
Chupa Chups and UM MENAT for “Chupa Chups – stretch the fun on social”
Programmatic
Silver Award
Telfast and Mindshare & Silverpush for “Telfast Weather Sync *Achoo* Campaign”
Gold Award
RAKBANK and UM MENAT & Promoseven360 for “RAKfoodie Paints the Town Yellow
Mobile Audio
Silver Award
Mastercard Middle East Africa and Future Tech Media & Carat MENA for “Sonic Brand Launch”
Gold Award
Closeup and Anghami & Magna for “Dynamic Ads (Closeup x Anghami)”